Games for Windows Live is poo though mate, that's the main reason I haven't used it since Halo 2, I did get a gaming-capable laptop recently but an article I read in Edge about the service a few months ago put me off for life.

It is completely free though, unlike it's xbox equivalent, not sure how they justify that one to be honest.

officially no, but if your connection can take it there is a 30 min trial for each game and the option to buy or rent for a few days. just sign up via the website and give a american address they dont take card details on the sign up.

officially no, but if your connection can take it there is a 30 min trial for each game and the option to buy or rent for a few days. just sign up via the website and give a american address they dont take card details on the sign up.

To be fair, anybody on a strictly capped ISP deal shouldn't really be using digital download services to buy games like this since it would likely always just end up costing them more in the long run anyway.

officially no, but if your connection can take it there is a 30 min trial for each game and the option to buy or rent for a few days. just sign up via the website and give a american address they dont take card details on the sign up.

That's awesome, I didn't even know that worked over here, although I don't have access to a decent US VPN at the moment and I just assumed that it wouldn't work without one.

I only have Virgin 10Mb anyway though so I doubt it would work very well for me anyway. My brother has the same connection as you and it's awesome.

Does anyone know if this will place achievements into your xbox live account?

From what I can see on the MS website it doesn't appear to have achievements.

Games like Halo 2, Shadowrun and Fallout 3 which I know have achievements, all have a little box in a Game Features section listing Achievements as one of the features. FEAR 2 doesn't state it has achievements in this version.

I double checked by going to Xbox360Achievements.org and they don't have FEAR 2 listed under PC games with achievements.

Microsoft really don't help themselves by having Games for Windows, and Games for Windows LIVE, being very similar in name, but quite different in what they deliver. GFW is completely useless as it just means it runs on Windows, whereas GFWL means it is linked in with your gamertag and should therefore have achievements.

Think I bought my copy of FEAR 2 from Amazon a couple of years ago. God know how I registered with Steam but I must have managed it somehow.

Just in case it helps anyone, if you think you will like FEAR 2, then give Timeshift a go. They are similar FPS games and for my money, Timeshift is the better game. I bought it about three years ago for £2.95 so it's out there for pennies if you look hard enough.